United Kingdom (UK)-based Tokamak Energy Limited, a fusion power research company, has built the world’s first set of new-generation High-Temperature Superconducting (HTS) Magnets to be assembled and tested in fusion power plant-relevant scenarios.
- Strong magnetic fields are required to contain and manage the extremely hot, positively-charged hydrogen fuel, which becomes a plasma several times hotter than the Sun to produce clean, sustainable fusion energy.
Key Points:
i. The new Demo4 facility from Tokamak Energy will consist of 44 individual magnetic coils made using 38 kilometres (Km) of ground-breaking HTS tape, which carries currents with zero electrical resistance and requires 5 times less cooling power than traditional superconducting materials.
ii. According to Tokamak Energy, the Demo4 magnet has a magnetic field that is about a million times stronger than the Earth’s magnetic field, which will have a strength of over 18 Tesla.
HTS Magnets:
The electrically charged “plasma,” or fusion fuel, is contained and controlled by magnetic fields in the Tokamak, which enables it to be heated to a temperature of more than 100 million degrees Celsius.
- HTS tapes, innovative high-field magnet conductors which make compact fusion possible, are used to wind the magnets.
Note: Tokamak Energy is a world leader in the development of HTS magnets for fusion and other applications.
HTS Tapes:
i. Superconductors only work at very low temperatures, around -269°C, with limited magnetic fields. The latest HTS tapes exceed these limitations, operating at increased temperatures with extremely high magnetic fields.
ii. HTS tapes are multilayer conductors with an interior coating of “rare earth barium copper oxide” (REBCO) superconducting material.v. The tapes are typically 12 mm wide and less than 0.1 mm thick, containing a thin (human hair-like) coating of REBCO.
Demo4 magnet system:
i. Demo4 will enable us to generate substantial magnetic forces and test them in scenarios relevant to fusion power plants.
- Moreover, it will substantially advance the level of HTS magnet technology readiness, which is essential to the objective of demonstrating grid-ready fusion in the early 2030s.
ii. It will comprise 14 toroidal fields (TF) limbs and 2 poloidal field coil stacks to form a cage-shaped structure comprised of 44 individual HTS coils.
- It will be tested at an extremely low temperature of minus 253 degrees celsius (C) – 20 degrees above absolute zero(273.15 degrees Celsius).
iii. The ST80-HTS advanced prototype fusion machine and the future ST-E1 power plant will be designed with the information from the system assembly, which will be finished in 2023, and testing, which will continue into 2024.
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About Tokamak Energy Ltd:
Chairman- Dr Chris Martin
Headquarters- Oxfordshire, UK
Establishment- 2009
